Record £1.3m fake Apple products seized in raid

James Oxenham

Published:11:04Friday 04 August 2017

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More than a million pounds worth of fake Apple products have been seized after a fake charger was discovered at a Haywards Heath shop.

West Sussex Trading Standards said it had undertaken the biggest seizure in its history after £1.3m worth of fake chargers, batteries, cables, headphones and adapters were recovered from a warehouse in London.

Fake Apple products.

Six months ago the team received a call about an overheating charger which had been bought from a shop in Haywards Heath.

It was branded as an official Apple product and priced at £59.

Trading Standards carried out a test purchase at the store after the customer complained about how hot it became when charging her Apple Macbook at home.

The charger was later confirmed to be unsafe and fake by Apple.

Fake Apple products.

Trading Standards said an investigation led officers to another store in Brighton and on to a warehouse in Kingston-upon-Thames.

Nine Trading Standards officers along with Apple investigators and the Metropolitan Police raided the London warehouse on Tuesday, August 1.

A spokesman said: “Over a million pounds worth of fake stock was recovered in the operation.

“Products were instantly recognised as fakes because many had the same serial numbers – a tell-tale sign as all official Apple products carry unique serial numbers to identify them.”